This application is based on the patent application No. 2000-265133 filed in Japan, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recycle information system for machines and equipment and relates in particular to a recycle information system for image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and facsimile machines, etc. and image forming apparatus for recycling.
2. Description of Prior Art
Interest in protecting the environment has heightened in recent years and the recycling of component parts constituting machines including image forming apparatus such as copiers, printers and facsimiles is under evaluation. The product life span of image forming apparatus is determined by the number of years of service or the frequency of usage, however even if the apparatus overall has reached the end of its product life, many parts of the apparatus have not reached the end of their product life. Therefore, the overall apparatus can be recovered and dismantled, sorted into parts for reuse and parts for discarding, and after undergoing the required inspection, the usable parts can then be recycled. A recycle system for toner cartridges for example, is already in operation.
A task indicator system for plants recycling office equipment such as copiers has already been proposed (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 10-216689) that predicts the service life of recoverable parts, and specifies recycling tasks for each recovered part of office equipment per manufacturing period and component part based on a database of usage records of office equipment on the market, and a characteristic information database holding information on the particular characteristics of parts used in the recovered office equipment.
In this system, when the machine number of a recovered parts of office equipment is input, whether or not the parts listed for that piece of office equipment can be reused is designated, and a processing method for reusing those parts are designated, so that the recycle operation can proceed quickly and accurately.
However in the above described task indicator system for the recycling plant, after the machine was recovered, in order to dismantle and attempt to reuse parts of the machine, the entire machine including components that were not reusable had to be shipped to the recycling plant, causing the problem of a large burden when recovering a machine for recycling.
Further, in order to supply reusable parts recovered at the recycling plant, to the production line at the manufacturing plant, the recycling plant had to be located adjacent to the manufacturing plant. A location adjacent to the manufacturing plant was satisfactory when all the recovered parts are used at the manufacturing plant, however, when some of the recovered parts had to be used at a manufacturing plant in a remote location, a shipping fee was added to the expenses creating the problem of higher costs.
In view of the problems with the related art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recycle information system for machines and equipment to compare information relating to the production member with information relating to the recovered parts and determine if recycling of the recovered parts is possible or not in the recycling system that recovers reusable parts from used machines and equipment and reuses there covered parts as production members.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a recycle information system having machines and equipment linked by a communications line with a control station for monitoring information on production parts in use or scheduled for use in manufacture and in maintenance servicing; and the information on reusable parts in machines and equipment scheduled for recycling can be controlled from the machines and equipment side.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide machines or equipment for receiving information on production parts in use or scheduled for use in manufacture and in maintenance servicing from the control station linked by way of the communications line, and for determining whether or not the individual parts used in the machines or equipment scheduled for recycling is reusable.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent to one skilled in the related art after reading the detailed description of the invention and referring to the accompanying drawings.